A coalition between Equality Ohio and other major LGBT groups on Friday
officially declared it will not support a 2014 ballot initiative that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. Instead, the coalition plans to continue education efforts and place the issue on the ballot in 2016. But FreedomOhio, the LGBT group currently
leading the 2014 ballot initiative, plans to put the issue on the ballot this year
with or without support from other groups. CityBeat covered the issue and conflict in further detail here.

The group heading Commons at Alaska, a permanent supportive housing project
in Avondale, plans to hold monthly “good neighbor” meetings to address
local concerns about the facility. The first
meeting is scheduled at the Church of the Living God, located at 434 Forest
Avenue, on Feb. 25 at 6 p.m. Some Avondale residents have lobbied
against the facility out of fears it would weaken public safety, but a
study of similar facilities in Columbus found areas with permanent
supportive housing facilities saw the same or lower crime increases as
demographically comparable areas. In January, a supermajority of City
Council rejected Councilman Christopher Smitherman’s proposal to rescind
the city’s support for the Avondale project.

Specifically, the proposal would on average cut taxes by $2 for the
bottom 20 percent of Ohioans, $48 for the middle 20 percent and $2,515
for the top 1 percent. The proposal is typical for Ohio Republicans:
They regularly push to lower taxes for the wealthy, even though
research, including from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service,
finds tax cuts for the wealthy aren’t correlated with higher economic
growth.

A new Ohio law uncovered more than 250 high-volume dog
breeders that previously went unregulated in the state. The new
regulations aim to weed out bad, unsafe environments for high-volume dog
breeding, but some animal advocates argue the rules don’t go far
enough. CityBeat covered the new law in further detail here.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald could
face a longshot primary challenger in May. But the challenger, Larry Ealy of the Dayton
area, still needs his signatures confirmed by the secretary of state to
officially get on the ballot.

Former Gov. Ted Strickland could run against U.S. Sen. Rob Portman in 2016, according to The Plain Dealer. Strickland cautioned it’s not an official announcement, but it’s not something he’s ruled out, either.

A bill that would make the Ohio Board of Education an
all-elected body appears to have died in the Ohio legislature.
Currently, the governor appoints nearly half of the board’s members. Some legislators argue the governor’s appointments make the body too political.